GAinsworth,

First allow me to commend you on the way you have handled this thread.  As I said before I respect your opinion but often in a community when one speaks against another opinion it tends to get a bit out of control.  In this case I think all the posts have been very well structured and offered insight instead of the traditional 'flamming'.  To get to your points though:

1. I have been using this since before it was DotNetNuke. I was new to .NET and find it hard to set a base for comparison. Even with that aside I think this is a difficult one to judge based on someones previous experience.  I have heard of users who understand IIS and setting up a site but are new to .NET being & somewhat familiar with MS SQL (if asp.net is installed on the machine properly) being able to accomplish this in the 10 minute range.

2. I don't think I have ever wiped the code or the DB for a new install unless file permissions were wrong in which case I did it because it was faster than setting on each file.

4. I move to a new DotNetNuke release based on many factors far beyond the scope of this conversation.  I have never forced an upgrade to fix previous core issues.

As for the biz questions: I am going to try and pretend it was a new .NET app I have never used and answer how I would attempt to answer.  I recently setup CS Forums and think I can show how I would react based on this view.

1. Setup time is more than likely under 30 minutes.  I would want to attempt a few test trials before moving to a productoin enviroment, so total this could take 1.5 hours tops but more likely would be under 1 hour.

2. This depends on what factors are involved.  Will I be required to setup the host IIS for asp.net, as a new webserver completely, or just a new site with all of this configured.  Next I would have to look at the database setup, if it is a proven system that is setup would be the best case.  With these factors all being configured, the man hours would be spread over up to a period of 5 hours but actual time involved would probably be under 1.  (I can multi-task)

3. In a situation where I am introduced to something new in an area I am familiar with, I would normally set 1 work day aside to become familiar with an application and its documentation as well as getting something up to show another person or group.  Given this situation and these the constraint of 1 work day I would be willing to take that risk. I can say from previous experiences with other .NET apps that I can accomplish this in one half work day everytime I have tried.

Crispy,

Excellent comments and points.

The major reason I started this thread was to try and signal to the core team, that some serious structural changes have to be made so that the average business entity would feel comfortible in using DNN.  Whether good or bad, the mean time to having a functional applicaion has significantly shrunk in recent years and the fear of "failure" increased.

And, many implementation decisions are made by superiors who, unfortunately, value "lack of risk" over "functionality".  The existing turmoil over "connection strings" only makes DNN appear to be more risky, as do the comments of "tried to upgrade, but..."

That being said, the core team, I submit that the core team really needs to restructure the DNN installation process.  If there is such confusion over "connection strings", why not provide multiple "release.config" files (one for MSDE, one for SQL express, one for SQL, one for SQL named instance, etc).  Surely given adequate comments, it is easier to select a "release.config" file that matches ones needs, rather than trying to edit individual line entries of a "one file fits all" offering.

My second concern is that the core team seems to regard "I finally got it to work" as pat on their back.  I submit they should view that comment as a warning.

Third, I submit that the forums concerning a "business critical appliction" should , by a majority, have discussions of "new features, benefits of the product, etc," rather than "Install fails...."